Yard progress...

Yard progress...  We spent the entire day working in the yard today.  It was such a lovely spring day that I just couldn't stand the idea of working in the barn.  So I got a good start on a project I couldn't tackle last summer: cleaning up years of deadfall from the willows, cottonwoods, and box elders growing along the canal.  Some of this is hand saw and lopper sort of work, but much of it was chainsaw – and I don't like using a chainsaw without someone there to call for help if needed.  I've never actually needed someone to call for help, but it's very comforting to know that someone could.

The work we did today involved a large cottonwood branch (about 18" diameter) that had cracked and fallen across the canal, extending about 40' into the edge of our lawn.  It looks like this happened at least 10 years ago, as there were substantial new branches off the big branch that clearly grew out after the big branch fell.  However, the big branch was slowly but surely making its way toward the ground, as the now-dead branches propping it up died and rotted.  Another couple of years and I'd have this big log right on the lawn.

So I chopped it up into about 30" long logs, using the chainsaw I bought last year: a Stihl MS 461 R.  I'd only used it once before, almost a year ago, when Debbie was up here for a visit (she was my safety person).  Today I broke it out, topped off all the fluid levels, and tried to start it.  On the fourth pull, it fired up – very nice.  Then I took it out to the broken limb, climbed into all my safety gear (helmet, face shield, ear protectors, Kevlar gloves and chaps) and went to work.  In very short order I had that entire 40' long branch cut to bits, along with all the big branches from it.  Compared with chainsaws I've used in the past, this one is both light and powerful, and the controls are simple and obvious.  It's so light that working with my arms straight out or even elevated is not a problem.  The anti-kickback brake is completely unobtrusive, but still works great.  The rocker claws make cutting big logs very easy.  It's a sweet machine, even better than the Husqvarna chainsaw I had in Jamul.

Unfortunately for me, once I that monster branch all cut up, I had to load it on the tractor and haul it to my log pile.  That was a bunch of work, and now I'm feeling it in all my muscles :)

The world seems to have...

The world seems to have ... an unlimited supply of crazy people.  And they're in competition with each other!

Watching this video gave me an idea.  What if ... political candidates were required to fly a challenging course (like the one shown in this video) in a wingsuit?  Would that not simultaneously (a) reduce the number of empty suit candidates, and (b) reduce the number of candidates that survive until election?  Not a bad thing, right?

Over 58,000 replica dog tags...

Over 58,000 replica dog tags...  This is an art installation at the National Veterans Art Museum in Chicago.  It does not (yet) have a permanent home.  Each replica dog tag is stamped with the name of a soldier or civilian who was killed in Vietnam, or died as a result of service in Vietnam.

Seeing this brings to mind once again the amazing reduction in the lethality (for Americans) of war over the past couple hundred years.  The Vietnam war was ongoing in my youth, and I served (not in combat, thank goodness) in the Navy at the end of it.  I knew several people who died in Vietnam; mainly fellow high school students.  In WWII, the big war of my parents' generation, over 400,000 Americans died.  That's almost eight times the number of dead as in Vietnam, and remember that America's population grew by leaps and bounds between WWII and Vietnam, so proportionally it's an even bigger jump.  Now in the War on Terror (including the Iraq War and the Afghanistan War), total American deaths are around 6,700 – a fraction of those in the Vietnam War, and again, America's population has grown significantly between the Vietnam War and the War on Terror.  I didn't know anyone personally who died in the War on Terror, though I do know a few people who lost family members.

The cost in American blood of a war is falling fast.  I have mixed reactions to that.  On the one hand, I can't help but celebrate the fact that fewer Americans are killed in wars.  On the other hand, the lower cost makes it easier (politically) to start a war...

FBI snake oil...

FBI snake oil...  The FBI has admitted that over 95% of the testimony it has given on hair analysis is flawed and is without a scientific basis.  There have been a number of such admissions over the years, mainly involving techniques that include a high degree of subjectivity: lie detectors, bite analysis, phrenology, psychological profiling, blood spatter analysis, and much more.

I think the proclivity for this sort of thing is baked into our criminal justice system.  The law enforcement folks have a very large incentive to get a conviction.  They (quite naturally) often develop a belief about the guilt of a suspect.  But to get a conviction, they have to provide convincing evidence – and something like hair analysis, with its veneer of scientific underpinnings, sounds good to a jury...

Pendulum clock...

Pendulum clock ... that keeps time to within 5/8ths of a second in 100 days – based on a 250 year old design by John Harrison.  I read a biography of Harrison last year (fascinating!).  He never built a clock with this design, but he was ridiculed preemptively, toward the end of his life.  This is a complete vindication.

Earthflow...

Earthflow...  This is a phenomenon I'd not heard of before.  The video at right is spectacular, showing a recent (April 1st) earthflow in Penza Oblast, Russia (see map at left).

Whoever made the video was amazingly close to this, and far braver (or crazier) than I am!